JOESEDDIT’S CRATES FULL OF VINYL – COUNTING CROWS

I’ve got a couple of crates full of old vinyl albums that I haven’t listened to in years due to lack of equipment to play them. Over a period of about a year and a half I revisited each album on the internet or bought the CD and ranked the songs. I also recorded some brief thoughts, rated the album, and posted the results on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artists comment section. I’m recycling and categorizing/grouping  the posts on this website.

August and Everything After

This is a great album and should have easily made this list. Although depressing as hell, some of the best lyrics I've ever heard.

Scale of 1 to 10:  A +

1- Omaha

2- Round Here

3- Rain King

4- Mr. Jones

5- Murder of One

6- Perfect Blue Buildings

7- Anna Begins

8- Raining in Baltimore

9- Time and Time Again

10- Sullivan Street

11- Ghost Train

Recovering the Satellites

The Counting Crows second album. The follow up to one of my favorite albums - “August and Everything After”.  Not nearly as good, but still has a few very good songs on it. Also has a lot of average to slightly above average songs and a couple that I didn’t care for much at all. Even though the song’s a real downer (as many Counting Crows songs are), I ranked “Miller’s Angels” first. Don’t know why, but I’m kinda partial to that type of song. “Horsedreamer” (also a sad song song) is just as worthy, though. Could have went a step higher in my assessment, but I’ll leave it at a “strong” C-plus.

Scale of 1 to 10:  C +

1- Miller’s Angels

2- Another Horsedreamer’s Blues

3- A Long December

4- Have You Seen Me Lately?

5- Goodnight Elisabeth

6- Monkey

7- Children in Bloom

8- Daylight Fading

9- Walkaways

10- Recovering the Satellites

11- I’m Not Sleeping

12- Mercury

13- Angels of the Silences

14- Catapult

This Desert Life

This album wasn’t in the crates but my CD is old enough to throw into the mix. Same thing was said about the Counting Crows’ debut album “August and Everything After”, which I revisited earlier in this project. “August” is one of my favorite albums, worthy of a spot on “all time” lists IMO. I wouldn’t rank this album above “August”, but I do consider it to be very good. As is often the case with the Counting Crows, most of the songs are introspective, which is fine with me. Ironically, the only song that I don’t like on this album is the one that got airplay –“Hanginaround”. (After the last song on the CD there’s dead air for a minute or two and another song plays that isn’t credited, so I’m calling it “Mystery Song”.) I could rate this one a half a grade higher. In fact, I think I will.

Scale of 1 to 10:  B+  A -

1- Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby

2- Amy Hit the Atmosphere

3- Four Days

4- Color Blind

5- All My Friends

6- I Wish I Was a Girl

7- St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream

8- Speedway

9- Mystery Song

10- High Life

11- Hanginaround